Sikh marriage as an act of Resistance: The case of Sikhs as Hindus in the Hindu Marriage Act

Loveleen Kaur Sikholars Submission

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PERSONAL STORY A few months ago, as I was helping my mother sort through some paperwork, I found my parents marriage certificate. My parents base much of their understanding of self with cultural and religious understandings of Sikhi1 as well as the political identity that has been formulated as a result of the existence of the Sikhs as a minority community within India and the world. Much of my upbringing has been underlined with themes that are reflective of this connection of my parents to their Sikh identity. However, upon finding my parents birth certificate, I was shocked to learn, that two people with whom Sikhi plays such a major role whether politically or spiritually, were in fact married as Hindus. My mind began to overflow with questions and broad connections. It was almost as a light-bulb moment while at the same time a moment of darkness. At a time where the generation of Sikhs born after 1984 were forced to reconcile their identities and histories in order to determine were we really terrorists both in the diaspora and at home in India, it becomes ever important to determine the role of the state and dominant hegemonic culture with the lived Sikh identity. As part of the non-naturalized generation of Sikh citizens in Canada that has become re-politicized, I have seen how mobilizing and organizing
1 I will use Sikhi instead of Sikhism as Sikh-ism was a term coined by European scholars upon their arrival into South Asia. Sikhi, as the original name for the religion, was ignored. For more information: http://www.SikhRI.org/Q&A 2

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within the Sikh community has taken on a new direction that has been greatly influenced by greater understandings of legal systems and the notions of liberal multiculturalism.2 It is also highly defined by the a generation of Sikh youth who are educated within the colonial systems of Canada and are learning to mitigate multiple conflicting identities within a body. These youth, representing a community, have become re-politicized while engaging in issues that exist within a highly charged transnational political atmosphere. I have experienced my understanding of myself and my identity being redefined with my engagement with these political discourses. Upon the discovery of the marriage certificate of my parents, I began to question the focus of the campaigns for political recognition when the Sikh community is reappropriated into the dominant hegemonic culture by something seemingly apolitical such as marriage. How can the Sikhs of the world get recognition or justice for something such as the Sikh Genocide when in the nation that has conducted these atrocities, the Sikhs are not considered a separate community as is articulated through the apolitical Hindu Marriage Act (1955). What does this mean for countries in which Sikhs of the diaspora reside? Do the host countries have to recognize a community that is not recognized by the home nation-state? How could a community that was taking so many political actions could ignore something as sweeping as the Hindu Marriage Act?

2 Examples being the case to have November, 1984 in India recognized within Canada as a Sikh Genocide, the protest against the arrival of Kamal Nath in Canada, and the cases of defamation against MP Ujjal Dosanjh for using terms such as Extremists and Terrorists to describe the Sikh community 3

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In addition to my concerns of the political implications of Sikhs in India being married as Hindus, I began wondering the connection, if any, to the Sikh marriage ceremony. Slowly, the whispers have started among family members, that I am coming of age and by that meaning marriage, of course. These conversations have left me hyper-sensitive to marriage in many respects. As a Sikh in the diaspora, I became concerned that I would not even know what events, traditions, or customs would need to be followed but simultaneously, I began to question many traditions I would see at weddings that I attended as they did not seem to mesh with my understandings of Sikhi. This became especially important when many of these traditions perpetuated patriarchal and elitist ideologies which, Sikhi speaks vehemently against but had become deeply engrained into the psyche of Sikhs that were sometimes performed even by religious individuals. As I began to draw connections, I could sense that something was awry. Being raised with bedtime stories of battles for Sikh sovereignty and being involved with campaigns demanding acknowledgement of the violence enacted on the Sikh community in India by the state, I began to wonder that perhaps, we as a community, have been ignoring the epistemological violence that is still being committed through items such as the Hindu Marriage Act.

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The Hindu Marriage Act (1957)3 in India serves as an act of forced hybridity where the Sikh community is legally incorporated into the dominant hegemonic culture. India is a nation that defines itself as a diverse, and multicultural perpetuates the colonial power in a post-colonial context by working to assimilate the political identities of communities that are in constant resistance to the hegemonic culture. Furthermore, this act of statedefined hybridity becomes reflective in cultural and social practices of marriage many of which, arguably, are deviations from the spirituality of Sikhi and historical practices. Through the apolitical institution of marriage, Sikhs are legally marked as Hindus which, has had implications for the recognition the Sikhs as a distinct community. As a result, Sikhs in India have had to define and craft an identity to prove their authenticity to oppose such measures. Furthermore, many Sikhs in the diaspora have taken these hybridized practices and used them as instances of celebrating their culture within liberal multicultural nations. HISTORY The history of a distinct act of marriage within Sikhi can be traced to the first Guru of Sikhi, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. According to tradition, at the onset of his wedding, Guru Nanak Dev Ji placed an inscription of the Mul Mantr on a stool and walked around it with his bride, disregarding Hindu marriage rites oriented around fire (Sikh Research Institution, 2009, 5). The Mul Mantr in

itself was an act of resistance that Guru Nanak Dev Ji partook in. The Mul

3 For the purposes of this paper, The Hindu Marriage Act (1957) will be known as The Act 5

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Mantr declared that there is only one God which, in a Hindu dominated community that based its theology in multiple Gods, was met with great anger. This action served as a moment of resistance that set precedence on the act of Sikh marriage. As Sikhi was expanding, each Guru made different contributions to the spirituality. The next instance of Sikh marriage is made apparent during the tenure of the third Guru, Guru Amar Das Ji. Followers of the Sikh teachings at the time who had ceased following case distinctions were excommunicated. Tradition states that one of the Sikhs named Randhawa was attempting to have his daughter married but the Hindu spiritual leaders refused to officiate the marriage stating that any follower of Guru Amar Das had ceased to be a Hindu, and this had forfeited the right to have the marriage of his daughter performed according to Sikh ritual. Upon hearing this, Guru Amar Das sent his son-in-law (afterwards the fourth, Guru Ram Das Ji) to officiate the marriage of the Sikh, Randhawas daughters wedding (Talwar, 1). It was then the fourth Guru, Guru Ram Das Ji who formally composed the laava, which came to be institutionalized as the composition to be sung during the wedding ceremony of Sikhs, a tradition that continues to this day (Sikh Research Institute, 2009, 5). Guru Ram Das instituted simple ceremonies and rites for birth, marriage and death, which promoted distinct identities for Sikhs (Singh, 2011, 26). Through all three instances, Sikh marriage represented a political action which, created a distinct Sikh identity.

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Marriage within the Sikh scriptures, the Guru Granth Sahib, is defined as They are not said to be husband and wife, who merely sit together. They alone are called husband and wife, who have one light in two bodies (Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Ang 788). Marriage is an act of equality between two people who are bound to the sacred word rather than to any legal or social authority and it is for deepening love, not increasing asceticism (Singh, 2011, 96). In between the passing of the tenth and last living Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Ji, and the creation of the Sikh kingdom, Sikhs lived as a largely nomadic people. During this time, they led (Sikhs) plain simple lives...sharing whatever they had and owing obedience to none, performing their own marriages and reciting hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib when anyone passed to the land of Gurus (Talwar, 2). The Sikh Rahit Maryada4 outlines the Anand Karaj5 as including walking around the Guru Granth Sahib in a clockwise direction during the recitations of the four laava (Singh, 2011, 96). Anand Karaj was a manifestation of a number of beliefs within Sikhi as it was free from luxury, caste, dowry and it observed women as equals. In all instances, there is no discussion of any customs or rituals that are to be incorporated into the marriage ceremony. This can be an indication to the awareness of the Sikh Gurus to the oppressive, patrilineal Indian society in which family name, caste and profession came through birth (Singh, 2011, 105) and could have great limitations to the participation of one in society.
4 Can be loosely understood as the Sikh ethical code that was agreed to in 1950 to create uniformity in the religious and social practices of Sikhs around the world. It was based off various earlier codes. 5 This has come to be known as the name of the Sikh wedding ceremony. It directly translates to Event of Bliss 7

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Arguably, the creation of a simple ceremony is another way in which, the Gurus were working to extinguish social hierarchies that can be created by lavish weddings or the need to pay religious (or other) officials to conduct ceremonies. The creation of the lavaa and the Anand Karaj allowed for the marriage ceremony to disrupt power hierarchies within religious institutions as well. It meant that marriage could essentially be conducted by anyone who was capable of reading the Sikh scriptures and who had a Guru Granth Sahib. Once again, the customs that were created for Sikh marriage (the Anand Karaj) were ones that related explicitly to the action of resistance to the dominant hegemonic forces. Once again, marriage was a form of resistance. Through Guru Ram Das Jis action to create a distinct Sikh identity to the creation of the Anand Karaj as a ceremony of accessibility, they are reflective of the tenants of Sikhi and existed as markers of Sikh identity. Sikh marriage was an institution created to resist the dominant hegemonic culture that perpetuated various inequalities. This meant that it was constantly susceptible to reappropriation within the same culture that it was designed to resist. This required a constant need of awareness to the characteristics of resistance within Sikhi or else there was an opportunity for domination. Perhaps, in this constant state of resistance, in modern times, Sikhs shifted their focus to political, physical attacks and did not sense the domination in social, legal terms through the Hindu Marriage Act.

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HINDU DOMINATION After the fall of the Sikh empire6, and during British colonial rule, Hindu domination within Sikh institutions became particularly evident. 1875 saw the creation of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement that began to suggest that Sikhi was a branch of Hinduism and Sikhi began sinking into the folds of Hinduism (Singh, 2011, 145). This was also a time of extended colonial missionary work (Singh, 2011, 145) where a public spectacle was created of young Sikh boys being converted into Christianity in Amritsar7 showcased by cutting their hair.8 British colonial rule also placed governance of Sikh Gurdwaras to Hindu leaders, Mahants, as a method to control the Sikh population. Mahants created a deviation from Sikh norms and Hindu images, icons, practices and ideologies became common practice (Singh, 2011, 152). Gurdwaras were no longer Sikh spaces and required the creation of separate spaces until control of the Gurdwaras were reclaimed. A number of Sikhs joined to create Singh Sabhas in various cities, aimed at recapturing the original message of the Gurus and recovering and reestablishing the Sikh identity (Singh, 2011, 147). During this time, a prominent member of the Singh Sabha movement, Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha published Ham Hindu Nahin9 (1898) to assert the distinct identities of Sikhs

6 Sikhs within the Sikh empire were not under British colonial rule until 1849, after defeat in the AngloSikh wars. During the Sikh empire, equality among Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims is extensively documented. 7 The holy city of Sikhs. It has many historical shrines including the Golden Temple. 8 To Sikhs, hair is a sacred symbol, an article of faith defined by the 10th Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Ji. It has been used multiple times by rulers throughout history to humiliate and control the Sikh population including by the medieval Mughal rule, by British Colonial rule, and by the Indian nation-state. 9 Written in Hindi, translates to We are not Hindus 9

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by outlining differences between scriptures, society, rituals, and belief systems (Singh, 2011, 147). It declared that Sikhs were a separate, autonomous, socio-religious entity (Singh, 2011, 147). Furthermore, the Singh Sabha movement lead to the conscious discarding the old Hindu customs, and they started performing their birth, marriage and death ceremonies in a way more aligned with the simpler, Sikh tradition (Talwar, 3). This lead to discussions about the necessity of having their own laws in regards to marriage, inheritance, and succession (as was normally dictated by Hindu tradition) that was inline with the Sikh spiritual tradition (Talwar, 3). This lead to the creation of the Sikh Anand Act, 1909 where the Sikh rite of marriage was legalized and after which, Sikh marriage was no longer patterned as a Hindu ritual (Singh, 2011, 147). This personal matter of marriage once again became a political matter. This was beyond the recognition of the Sikh marriage rites but the recognition by the British that the Sikhs were distinct, legal entities. Although, there can be questions raised about lauding the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, that was instituted through British colonial rule, it is important to recognize the significance of the legal recognition of Sikhs as an autonomous entity. Talwar outlines the process through which the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, came into place. He describes it as one that was entirely initiated by the Sikhs of the Singh Sabha movement and pushed through with letters of support from Sikhs in prestigious positions. Unlike other laws created during colonial rule, this was not an imposition. Perhaps the rulers

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were unaware of the political implications of recognizing the autonomous nature of Sikh marriage because by doing so, Hindu fundamentalist movements like the Arya Samaj were placed on the fringes. This can be seen as an important piece to decades later, as Sikhs were crucial to discussions for an independent India along with Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Jinnah.

THE ACT Upon receiving independence, the leaders of the new nation-state of India were tasked with creating a constitution for the worlds largest democracy. It created an ideology as one based in inclusivity and diversity however, as per any democracy, it is the rules of the majority over the minority. This lead to Article 25 of the Indian Constitution explicitly identifies the Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist traditions as sects of a larger Hindu religion, and therefore, all marriages involving members of these religious communities are officially performed under the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 (Sikh Research Institute, 2009, 5)10. The institution of The Act constitutes an admission that India is ultimately a Hindu State (3. Legal Definition of Hindu). Upon its initial introduction, Sikh spokesman Sardar Hukum Singh regarded the Bill as a dubious attempt on the part of the Hindus to absorb the Sikhs (3. Legal Definition of Hindu). The imagery of the absorption of the Sikhs is representative of the state apparatus attempting to impose the hegemonic culture and to assimilate the Sikhs. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was introduced
10 Muslims and Christians have separate marriage acts in India. Interestingly, the same Christian Marriage Act from 1872, instituted during colonial rule has been maintained. 11

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the first version of the Hindu Law and his reply to Sardar Hukam Singh was The application of the Hindu Code to Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains was a historical development and it would be too late, sociologically, to object to it. When the Buddha differed from the Vedic Brahmins, he did so only in matters of creed, but left the Hindu legal framework intact. He did not propound a separate law for his followers. The same was the case with Mahavir and the ten Sikh gurus. (3. Legal Definition of Hindu). This represented a state-controlled hybridity where some groups such as Christians and Muslims were seen as separate from the dominant, Sikhs were considered mere hybrids of Hinduism as is seen with Dr. Ambedkars quote. The onus was placed on the Sikh community to authentic their identity as authentic and autonomous. Consciously or not, the implications became reflected in social and cultural traditions of Sikh marriage that were veering from the Sikh spirituality and tradition. Jyoti conducted research on the marriage practices of Sikhs and found that many of them do not corroborate fully to the tenets of Sikhi (194). One of the ways that the marriage practices deviate from Sikhi was through the importance placed on caste which, is explicitly condemned in the Sikh Rahit Maryada but instead follows the Hindu code of conduct (204). Although Sikhi clearly repudiates caste system and followers are expected not to give any consideration to caste at the time of marriage, the majority of Sikhs in her study followed the Hindu caste restrictions (Jyoti, 1983, 209). Along with a perpetuation of casteism, Sikh marriage practices in

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Jyotis research were also perpetuating patriarchy through formal proposals. According to Sikhi, both parties in marriage are equal, thus making it immaterial which party makes the formal proposal for marriage but in most of the cases, the formal proposal was brought by the side of the bride which, is once again reflective of Hindu practices (Jyoti, 1983, 216). The formal proposal coming from the brides side, is representative of cultural discourse of daughters as burdens and the last duty of the parents is to have her married so she will no longer be their burden.11 The incorporation of patriarchal values allows for other aspects of Hindu culture to permeate through Sikh marriage practices despite the Sikh scriptures being explicitly clear in its stance against the subjugation of women. Dowry has been a major way in which, Hindu cultural practices have become practice among Sikhs. Upon my mothers engagement, she made it quite clear that she would not be giving a dowry which, was unheard of and looked down upon, but she was also able to make this statement as she was a Canadian citizen.12My fathers younger brothers did expect dowries from their wives, even as Canadian citizens themselves, so not accepting a dowry from my mother was a unique circumstance in my fathers family. Dowry has further expanded to cover the costs of opulent weddings leaving many

11 My grandmother, who considers herself a religious person, on the birth of my youngest cousin, a girl, last year was in tears out of sadness for the family having to bear the burden of another girl. She continued to tell me how my uncle, because we live in Canada, will have to pay for her to be educated just so she can be eligible for marriage and then to be given off upon marriage providing no value to our family. 12 Being a Canadian citizen serves almost as currency. It was as, if not more, valuable than a dowry as it would mean that the groom would be able to immigrate to Canada and potentially his immediate family (if not others) as a result. 13

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families in debt (Singh, 2011, 102). Despite, the Sikh Rahit Maryada denouncing any custom that treats a daughter like an object or a piece of property and is passed from her husband and his family, dowry is still widely popular (Singh, 2011, 119). Singh aptly connects the contemporary reality of the values that perpetuate dowry are also the same values that are allowing for the horrendous act of female feticide (2011, 115). This presents a number of problems as it not only represents the restriction of womens legal independence to fathers and husbands as per Brahminical tradition (Singh, 2011, 101) but weddings have become a show of class and wealth. Guru Ram Das Ji, the creater of the laava (as discussed earlier) wrote as part of the verses to be recited For my gifts and dowry, give me the presence of the Omnipresent!...Any other dowry presented by the self-oriented is deceptive, egotistical, and worthless.. (Sikh Research Institute, 2009, 19). The verses sung during the laava and the marriage ceremony describe marriage as one that does not require material goods ironically, as people are sitting adorned in expensive clothing and jewelry largely at the expense of the brides family. The Sikh marriage tradition that was once revered for being a simple, inexpensive and accessible ceremony has become the exact opposite. Many other traditions resembling Hindu marriages have come into the practices of Sikh marriage. These include changes in modest clothing to elaborate lahinga skirts the revival of discarded Sikh customs such as

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mahindi13 (Singh, 2011, 219), wearing decorative headgear, wearing read thread around the wrist to prevent ill omen, the giving/taking of clothing and putting on a tilak.14 Many of these are condemned within the Sikh Rahit Maryada as they represent ritualistic practices without meaning that Sikhi worked to move away from. A website focused on weddings in India describes Sikh wedding rituals.15 It prescribes many Hindu traditions and describes actions opposite almost every section of the Protocols of the Anand Karaj section of the Sikh Rahit Maryada. It also gives no mention of Sikh customs around marriage except for the circling of the Guru Granth Sahib. This is evidence of the extent to which, state policies have affected Sikh marriage. Singh argues that the Sikh Gurus wanted to bring about a genuine transformation in society by breaking open the inner fount of joy suppressed by religious officials power-wielders: practitioners today must free their rites and ceremonies from stifling economic and social pressure, and invest them with the spiritual energy derived directly from their Gurus (99). Instead of progressing the work of Sikhs who fought to break down oppressive structures, many Sikh marriage has become an institution mired with political domination and fixed in traditions that are neither progressing nor accurate. Singh gives an example of one way in which the Sikh wedding ceremony could continue to break oppressive structures, Currently, the
13 Henna 14 Hindu marking on the head 15 Sikh Wedding Rituals - Sikh Wedding Customs, Sikh Marriage Ceremonies. Indian Wedding Weddings in India - Indian Marraiges. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http:// weddings.iloveindia.com/indian-weddings/sikh-wedding.html> 15

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groom leads the four circles16, the ritual would be more balanced if the bride and groom took turns leading, or both walked together side by side. Such a performance would be a fulfillment of the intrinsic circularity of laava without beginning or end, and without any linear hierarchies (2011, 99). Sikh marriage rites were created as a form of resistance against dominant hegemonic cultures that perpetuated oppressive structures and continued to function as such but at some point, Sikh marriage stagnated, became an apolitical representation of culture and no longer was subversive.

STATE AS MARKERS OF IDENTITY Using Diane Nelsons analysis, I will outline how Sikhs have been marked with hostile markings. Similar to Nelsons example of the Mayan community in Guatemala needing to create an identity to prove their authenticity in connection to an indigenous community prior to colonization, the Sikh community, through the examples outlined, has to actively articulate why it is not apart of the dominant, Hindu culture. The Indian state does not ask for definition nor provide an opportunity for definition but instead works to actively absorb that identity. Regardless of the binary that is attempted to be created by state forces by using hybridity to deny an identity, Nelson argues that both the form and content of Mayan identity has been shaped in relation to nonindigenous orthopedic technologies, which hostile mark this body politic through religions proselytizing sumptuary

16 In Hindu wedding ceremonies, the groom leads as well. 16

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codes, Spanish-monolingual education systems, labor extraction regimes and violent displacement (1999, 130). Despite the identity that is attempted to be denied to the Mayan people, hostile markings have created a separate identity that not only cannot be denied but create a politicized identity. The Sikh community have been marked with one within the dominant culture but with hostile markings that leaves them in a liminal space. Despite the definitions by the state of Sikhs as Hindus, it has been crucial in creating differences with identity formations which is reflective of colonial strategies of rule over the historicity of identity (Nelson, 1999, 132) as is made evident by Dr. Ambedkars comments. Nelson discusses the ways in which Mayan activist are appropriating their hostile markings of identity as a way to participate in the state as their identities have been created in relation to the state. Nelson articulates this further in reference to Audre Lordes imagery that the masters tools may be the only way to make the masters house liveable for all its inhabitants (1999, 133) and the ways in which, the violent exclusions and fixings involved in essentialized notions of identity as they are deployed against the Maya (1999, 134). The state is a prime actor in creating fixed identity for those that it continues to subjugate through physical violence as well as epistemological violence. Through the reference to Audre Lorde, questions are raised about countering this violence within the state that is enacting it. Can working within the state be an affective form of resistance? In the case of the Sikhs, where there have been constitutional definitions of their identity, working within the state to

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overturn this essentializing will have to be at least part of the strategy for acceptance as a separate, legal entity similar to the Singh Sabha movement in the late 1800s. The need to explicitly define a group that represents only 2% of your population as is the case with Sikhs in India, raises suspicions. Nelson argues that the way power demands authentic difference from its others seems to be disavowel of the tenuousness of its own identification (1999, 134). Especially when, the state continues repressive policies specifically against populations that it denies the existence of. If Mayans in Guatemala or Sikhs in India are mere hybridizations of the dominant culture and are no longer distinct identities, why the need to violently eradicate or to staunchly oppose service-providing programs? The act of the Indian state to create the Hindu Marriage Act shows an underlying weakness or fear of a community that cannot be adequately controlled simply through toleration. It shows a need to absorb the community before the realization of perhaps, the injustices that the community has faced at the hands of the state that can lead to the undermining of the facade that is created of inclusivity and equality. Especially since the demand for authenticity exists within the ability to articulate the past to a political project in the present (Nelson, 1999, 134). Identity is a constant definition and redefinition, in opposition to forces controled-hybridization. The need to define within a political project using the masters tools can also prove problematic as the essentialized can perpetuate the

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essentializing not recognizing the use of the masters tools on themselves. Divisions have been created within the Sikhi community as to who is a Sikh and what access different types of Sikhs have to the acts of spirituality. The need for rigidity and clear boundaries of identity is reflective of the states attempt to fix identity. An example has been the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC)17 need to define a Sikh in order to access spots reserved for Sikhs in the education institutions run by it.18 Perhaps, in a country where everyone is placed into categories of caste, religion, region, language, gender, pressure gets placed on communities who do not recognition, such as the Sikhs, and they are forced to carve out a space and articulate an identity within these regimented categories. It serves as another way to assimilate and segment communities so that the marginalized populations are even further diminished. The discourse of assimilation needs to be understood as a political act of power, not as a natural process of hybridization. Nelson draws on Althuser to describe this, the Guatemalan state has made repeated attempts to assimilate the indigenous populations through various ladinoization - both the repressive state apparatuses or massacre and occupation and the ideological state apparatuses that calling hostile markings (such as religion, clothing and language) (1999, 136). This helps to understand that the Hindu Marriage Act has served as only a part of an ideological state apparatus and
17 The SGPC was created once control of the gurdwaras was wrestled from the British serving Mahants. It was to serve as an autonomous Sikh body to manage Sikh gurdwaras. 18 A young woman was declared as not being a Sikh by the SGPC (largely composed of males) because she plucked her eyebrows. This was a huge case, as this definition of a Sikh can now be used to the state to deny more Sikhs of their identity but can be justified as it was instituted by Sikh leadership. 19

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in years following, there have been incidents of mass violent state repression as well as the denial of the importance of the main language of the Sikhs, Punjabi, within the education system and state ministries. There is also an active denial and exclusion of modern Sikh history from state curriculum and funding into films that show the backward and irrelevant nature of Sikhi.19 However, drawing on Homi Bhabha, Nelson discusses the potential for resistance within hybridity. She states, hybridity works as both an imposition and as rearticulation, as the Maya insist on inclusion and participation but with difference (and) this repeating with a difference has been termed colonial hybridity and ambivalence by Homi Bhabha. The violent ways that culture clashes and disciplinary encounters leave their orthopedic marks most brutally on the colonized but also on the colonizer become sites of interdiction (Nelson, 1999, 137). These culture clashes only further galvanize communities by using what was meant to fix (and hybridize/assimilate) identity is being used to hold on to culture (Nelson, 1999, 143). In this repetition with difference, is where Nelson (using Bhabha) argues the resistance lies.

DIASPORA AS SITES OF INTERDICTION Using Bhabhas notion presented by Nelson of sites of interdiction, I argue that the diaspora for the Sikh community is a place where repeating
19 Specifically, a film entitled Roots of Love talking about the clash of boys with their culture which is represented by Sikhi and their parents (who are unable to articulate the spiritual value of hair) and modernity. 20

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with difference will create the greatest difference. Singh argues that since immigrant Sikhs maintain transnational ties with their families and friends in the Punjab (and India), the customs and values from there are quickly exported to diasporic communities across the globe (2011, 103). Thus, the Hindu Marriage Act and its implications follow Sikhs to countries where the Act does not apply. However, it is here in many western, liberal multicultural democracies that place emphasis on celebrating culture while, downplaying political identity, Sikhs can once again find a place of resistance in Sikh Marriage Act as was the case throughout history. As a transnational community, Sikhs in the diaspora are constantly negotiating the maintenance and revision of culture. This can serve as a space for transformation, where instead of perpetuating doubly, dominant hegemonic practices of marriage in the diaspora, the Sikhs repeat with difference, practices that transcend time and place. Sikh marriage would then exist as a political institution that would exist beyond any dominant hegemonic cultures and legalities. It would heed the call of the Gurus to continue resisting oppression in whatever forms it exists and would rearticulte its identity with its tenants in mind. Sikhi would progress beyond the fixed identity to a political identity that is based in the past, situates in the present and moves to the future.

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Works Cited 3. Legal Definition of Hindu. Voice of India Features - 30 Oct 2011. N.P., n.d. Web. 13 Dec 2011. <http://voi.org/books/wiah/ch.3.htm>. Anand Karaj: The Anand Marriage Act Centennial. Sikh Research Institute. N.p., 22 Oct. 2009. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <www.sikhri.org/download/Anand %20Karaj.pdf>. Jyoti, Surinder K.. Marriage practices of the Sikhs: a study of the intergenerational differences. New Delhi: Deep & Deep, 1983. Print. Nelson, Diane. 1999. A Finger in the Wound: Body Politics in the Quincentennial Guatemala. Chapter 4 (pp. 128-169). Berkely: University of California Press. Sikh Wedding Rituals - Sikh Wedding Customs, Sikh Marriage Ceremonies. Indian Wedding - Weddings in India - Indian Marraiges. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http:// weddings.iloveindia.com/indian-weddings/sikhwedding.html> Singh, Nikky-Guninder Kaur, Sikhism: an introduction. London: I.B. Tauris;, 2011. Print. Talwar, K.S.. The Anand Marriage Act. Global Sikh Studies. National Archives, New Delhi, n.d. WEb 13 Dec. 2011. <www.globalsikhstudies.net/pdf/article/pagesfromPPPVol02Part2.pdf

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